President Herbert Hoover In The 1930's

The Great Depression was a time during 1929 to 1939, It was the longest lasting economic disaster. The two presidents in term during this crisis, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover, approached this problem in different ways. Hoover’s idea on this was to have private citizens help each others, while Roosevelt believed the government should take care of its people with social programs. Looking at these ideas in more depth we can infer ways our country should go.

The wealth during the 1920s left Americans unprepared for the economic depression they would face in the 1930s. The Great Depression occurred because of overproduction by farmers and factories, consumption of goods decreased, uneven distribution of wealth, and overexpansion of credit. Hoover was president when the depression first began, and he maintained the government’s laissez-faire attitude in the economy. However, after the election of FDR in 1932, his many alphabet soup programs in his first one hundred days in office addressed the nation’s need for change.

The transition between presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt marked the transformation from a weak, to a strong form of government, which became directly involved in the lives of the people. This was primarily caused by the difference in the executive leaders ideologies, where Hoover was more focused on individual responsibility and capitalism, Roosevelt was more concerned with immediate action based on government intervention. Overall, the New Deal sacrificed the amount of personal responsibility that the people had with their own economic security. The power of the federal government was strengthened, but the long-lasting effects based on the social and economic policies was beneficial for the United States.

Many of Hoover’s policies favored big businesses and he believed that the growth of the economy depended on increasing capital given to big businesses would combat the depression, which is also known as the Trickle Down economics. If the government aided big businesses then their investments and success would “trickle-down” to the working class, this improving and expanding the economy (Doc 5). Many people criticized Hoover and his policies for not helping the needy. He refused to provide federal relief programs to help unemployed since he thought people would not be motivated to work if the government aided them (OI).As conditions worsened, makeshift homes popped up all over America and were nicknamed “Hoovervilles”, after Herbert Hoover. Hoover believed that that individual initiative and big businesses would solve the problems of the depression and that the economy would recover on its own (OI).

On the day of August 10, 1874, Herbert Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa. As Hoover was advancing in age, he worked excessively hard to become involved in the political world. As an American politician, Hoover contributed to the negative impact in the background of America. Herbert Hoover was primarily recognized for serving one term during 1929 until 1933 of the thirty-first president for the United States. This president is considered significant in American history, as citizens of the U.S concluded that Hoover triggered the commencement of The Great Depression. During Herbert Hoover’s term in serving president for The United States Of America, The Great Depression revealed the negative and positive aspects of his presidency.

He helped over 120,000 stranded American tourists return home from Europe and coordinated the delivery of food and supplies to Belgium citizens after the country was overrun by Germany. Hoover was appointed to the head of the Food Administration by President Woodrow Wilson when the United States entered the war in 1917. He made many things being the Head of the Food Administration. He advocated that Americans should cut on the consumption of meat and other supplies so they could have a stable supply of food and clothing for the Allied troops. After the war ended, Hoover set shipments of food and care to war-ravaged Europe. From this doing, he was recognized worldwide for his caring efforts, and received many thank you letters from people across Europe who gained from the free meals also known as "Hoover Lunches." All these great doings and outcomes gave Hoover the success of becoming the secretary of commerce under President Warren Harding. He would continue this position under President Calvin Coolidge as well. In the 1920s, Hoover helped construct a dam on the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada. This dam was named the Hoover dam and opened in

. Compare and contrast the responses of Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Great Depression.

Hoover was not interested in the affliction caused by the Great Depression. In fact, people’s way of life started deteriorating as they had no support from the government. His inability to face national upcoming crisis was a mistake to the US economy and the way down to massive depression. Hoover marked into law the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which prompted an emotional decrease in global exchange; and also consenting to impose increments on homes, organizations, and checks. His business profession, and individual convictions, made him ill-suited to giveaway effectively with a monetary calamity as desperate as the Great Depression.

Even though Hoover wasn’t re-elected after 1933, his failed attempt at laissez-faire still affected the American people. An example of this is Roosevelt’s attempt at counteracting Hoover’s Rugged individualism. During Roosevelt’s campaign he promised a ‘New Deal’ for the American people, where, especially in comparison to Hoover’s: ‘laissev-faire’, the US government would be more involved with businesses and the country’s citizens. Summed up, the ‘New Deal’ was about doing everything to keep the country from disaster.

All of these programs seemed to help and Americans were better off, but the Great Depression was over. Roosevelt continued to push for more reform, but in 1937 business slowed and another recession hit the nation. Now Roosevelt is being blamed for the nation’s problems. He was now at a

"Once upon a time my political opponents honored me as possessing the fabulous intellectual and economic power by which I created a world-wide depression all by myself." Herbert Hoover was the president in office during the beginning of the Great Depression. He said this quote when most Americans attributed him to the root of the depression. This great despair started in 1929 and persisted for a decade. Launching off from Black Tuesday or the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the United States was under a national despondency. This depression was felt world-wide to nations such as Great Britain and Germany. In the United Sates, black Americans were the ones who suffered in preponderance since they were the first to be unemployed, they were racially

However, while this is true (African Americans were not helped, unemployment had risen after the federal government stopped subsidising jobs), FDR’s New Deal changed the role of the federal government in American society from a quite passive role to an active one. Through the Great Depression, Hoover had a laissez-faire approach. This meant that the government lets America figure out the dilemma themselves. One of the most important key turning point of the New Deal was the change in the relationship between the government and the nation.

He believed that it was the people’s responsibility to get themselves out of the depression since they got themselves into the mess in the first place. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the other hand would interact with the people of America during the depression, FDR would actually get on the radio every week and talk to the people about what he had planned for them. The New Deal was FDR’s plan and It was designed to give people their jobs back and reduce the amount of the unemployed people in the U.S. However, the New Deal wasn’t specific on how it’d give the jobs back in fact the New Deal actually catered to white people, black people were stripped of their jobs and were replaced by white people.

Roosevelt was elected as the United States president. He took office with the country mired in the depths of The Great Depression. FDR immediately acted on this issue and thus was born the New Deal programs. The New Deal expanded the government’s role in the depression economy, and also enhanced laws that regulated Wall Street. FDR’s

1. The New Deal was Roosevelt’s set of reforms to better the welfare of Americans. During this time, many Americans were relying on handouts from private charities due to the poor domestic economy. There was no government welfare system that dealt with helping out the people since the president prior to Roosevelt, Hoover, believed a welfare state was bad for America.